Vocational school teachers vote no-confidence in boss

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
7:00 pm EST, Thursday, March 10, 2005

The vote was to call attention to the unhappiness over the speed and scope of changes Superintendent Abigail Hughes instituted in the past year at the 17 high schools and three satellites that make up the technical system.
Union leaders hoped to force Hughes and her team out of power, but Hughes has the support of the state education commissioner and the state education board and has no plan to step down.
The voting took place before and after school over three days this week. Of the 1,200 union members eligible to vote, 1,013 did, with 853 voting no-confidence.
Hughes was named superintendent a year ago and made significant changes in the schools, revising curriculum, tightening admissions standards and adding labs for math and English skills.
In a prepared statement after the vote, Hughes said she would not step down.
"The actions of the union leadership have taken time, attention and energy away from the work we need to do," she said. She praised the teachers "for the hard work they have invested in school improvements over these past months. We have seen much progress."
State Vocational Federation of Teachers union president Aaron Silvia hoped the results would give teachers confidence their concerns about the changes were not unique and force a change in the administrative team.
Edward Crane, a carpentry instructor and union representative for Henry Abbott Technical High School in Danbury, said he was glad the vote took place.
"I hope this makes it better for the students and the staff. There were too many things implemented too quickly without input from the staff," Crane said.
He said one change that created havoc was the swtich from a 12 to six-day cycle between academics and shop classes at the schools. Now, it's expected to be changed to a nine-day cycle.
"Some changes have been good. She's been good. She's not a total failure. She's trying to implement too many things far too quickly. It's detrimental to the students," Crane said.
Abbot Tech senior Mike Forrest, 18, of Danbury, said the cycle change was a bad one because not enough could get done in either program. Meanwhile, William Bravo, 17, a senior from Danbury, said the addition of mid term exams this year was good.
"I believe it was fine. That's the whole point of school, to learn academically," Bravo said.
One Abbott Tech veteran teacher, who declined to be identified, believed Hughes has the school system's best interests at heart. He said the consultants from the different trades who worked with Hughes should assume some blame for the unrest because they didn't do a better job of understanding what was possible.
"She set the bar high, but it should not have been set so high so fast," he said.
Hughes has already made changes to address the unrest, said Thomas Murphy, spokesman for the technical school system.
"She's established focus groups to listen to teachers system-wide," he said. "She's expanded all trade and curriculum committees to have representatives from each school."
The Governors Task Force, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association and the state education board wanted to see fast changes in the technical schools, he said.
"The state board, and commission and task force wanted it done overnight and we jumped in with enthusiasm and have learned that the teachers had difficulty with adjustments," Murphy said. "Too fast, too much, too soon - that's a legitimate response.''
Union president Aaron Silvia said he was pleased by the number of teachers who participated in the process and the overwhelming result.
"Part of the problem is that we never had any dialogue with this administrative team," Silvia said. "We know schools have to be responsive to the market place and industry. Schools have to work to improve. We agree with all that. We don't think they came up with the changes that are going to work.
Silvia said it was not accurate for the administration to portray the union as not cooperative with administrative team, the education commissioner or the state school board to improve the schools.
"The teachers were characterized as resistant to change and not seeking to improve because we have opposed new policies and new initiatives we don't think will lead to improvement," Silvia said.
State education commissioner Betty J. Sternberg released a statement in support of Hughes on Thursday and the state school board voiced its support for her at its meeting March 2.
"The State Board, Dr. Hughes, her staff and I will continue to work with the teachers, students and families of the Connecticut Technical High Schools to make improvements that are vital to the future of the system and to our students," Sternberg's statement said.